LYNN — Edward J. “Chip” Clancy Jr., former mayor of Lynn, who also helped forge a family legacy in the city’s baseball history, has died.
Clancy, who died Sunday night at Masconomet Healthcare Center in Topsfield after a lengthy illness, would have celebrated his 71st birthday later this month.
He served as mayor at a tumultuous time in the city, from 2002 through 2009, when the financial situation of the city tightened considerably in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. During his term, his administration closed two convalescent homes — the Joseph P. Devlin Public Medical Institution on Holyoke Street and Lynn Convalescent Home; tore down Manning Bowl, a historic stadium where legendary athletes such as Harry Agganis played, and supervised its reconstruction into a modern facility; dealt with the fallout when the new Lynn Classical was found to be sinking; and tangled with the Lynn Firefighters Union over its labor contract.
“Still,” said Dan Dill, a former Lynn Public Schools guidance counselor and member of the 1969 Connery Post 6 American Legion state championship baseball team — which Clancy coached, “he leaves a huge footprint on the city.”
Clancy came to City Hall after serving 12 years on Beacon Hill: four as a state representative and eight as a senator. In his first race for state representative, he defeated longtime incumbent and former House speaker Thomas W. McGee, whose son, Thomas M. McGee, became mayor of Lynn.
Mayor McGee, who later succeeded Clancy both in the House and Senate, said there was nothing personal about any of it.
“You don’t take those things personally,” McGee said. “He ran. It was a campaign. It got tense at times. But it’s politics.”
And Clancy loved his politics, said Lynn Community Development Director James Marsh, his former chief of staff.
“He loved the art of politics and was always up for a good political battle,” said Marsh. “But what he loved most about his job was simply helping people. Whether it was helping someone with housing or a job, that’s what motivated him. He kept a folded ‘constituent services’ list in his suit jacket pocket that he would reference every day.”
But he also loved his baseball, too.
“The name ‘Clancy’ is synonymous with Connery Post 6 baseball,” said Dill. “When you think of Lynn baseball, the name ‘Clancy’ is on top of the list.”
“I met Chip when I was 16 playing legion baseball for Post 6,” said James Cowdell, executive director of Lynn’s Economic Development Industrial Corporation. “We became lifelong friends and I will miss him deeply.”
Clancy was the oldest son of Edward J. “Nipper” Clancy, a legendary baseball coach for both Connery and St. Mary’s High School (among his players was the late Tony Conigliaro, who played for the Red Sox).
Clancy was instrumental in the creation of a baseball tournament named for his father in 1982, “The Nipper Clancy Tournament.” It involved three of Lynn’s schools and North Reading High, coached by former Clancy player Frank Carey. Through the tournament, scholarships were awarded each year.
One of the coaches who helped Clancy form the tournament was then-St. Mary’s Coach Jim Tgettis.
“If you have a good friend in life, you are very fortunate,” Tgettis said. “I just lost one. I think he was tremendously underappreciated as mayor.”
But Clancy also was drawn to Nipper’s other occupation — politics. The elder Clancy served as the city’s assessor, and at a young age, his son joined the political fray by running for City Council and winning. In 1982, Clancy ran for mayor against incumbent Antonio Marino, and got 1,393 more votes than the mayor in the primary. However, two months later, Marino emerged as the victor by 3,119 votes.
“After the primary, some of Tony’s people came to me and asked me if I’d help them organize their campaign,” said Lynn attorney James Carrigan. “I told them I would.
“I respected him like I respected Speaker McGee,” said Carrigan. “They both understood power. I was always amazed at how quickly (Clancy) could rally people in one day.”
By 1983, Clancy was back on the City Council, and stayed there until he challenged Thomas W. McGee in 1990. In a close primary, McGee was declared the winner, but Clancy won the recount.
Four years later, Sen. Walter Boverini decided not to seek reelection to his state senate seat. Clancy ran for it, and won. He spent eight years in the senate before deciding to run for mayor against Patrick J. McManus. However, McManus ultimately decided not to run, making Clancy the first (and still only) challenger to run unopposed for mayor.
Clancy didn’t just win the election — he became the first mayor, under the city’s newly-revised charter, to win a four-year term. He won a second one in 2005, again running unopposed. But by 2009, McManus was poised to wrest the city back. However, he died in July of that year, and Councilor-at-Large Judith Flanagan Kennedy mounted a signature campaign, which landed her on the November ballot.
After a bitterly-fought campaign, Kennedy won by 27 votes.
McGee said that while he always liked and supported Clancy, it wasn’t until he became mayor himself that he truly appreciated this job he did.
“He spent the majority of his life in public service,” said McGee. “He and I worked together on a lot of important things. But when you have the job (of mayor) yourself, you appreciate some of the decisions he had to make that much more.
“He did what he thought was right, and it wasn’t always popular,” said McGee, “but he stood up for those decisions.”
“I thought he was a strong mayor,” said Nicholas Kostan, appointed by Clancy as superintendent of Lynn Public Schools. “I enjoyed working for him because you knew where he was coming from. I thought he was a good person.”
Kostan also spoke of Clancy’s softer side.
“He was great for the kids in this city,” he said. “He’d always say that as long as he was mayor, no kid would ever have to pay a user fee in Lynn Public Schools, and he meant it. And he was right.”
Marsh also alluded to Clancy’s puckishness.
“Anyone who knew him well knew his voice message recording was ‘Hi this is Chip Clancy, I am at church or the library.'”
Laurie Hamill, who worked in his office, said that Clancy “loved the city, his constituents, his friends and family.
“He was determined to do what was right for Lynn,” she said. “His legacy was making the right decisions for the city, but not necessarily easy decisions.”
She said he wasn’t one for pomp and circumstance, and did a good job escaping City Hall if he saw TV news trucks.
What he enjoyed most was running — and horses. He was a fixture at the Saratoga Race Course in New York during summer sessions, and also organized a golf tournament to benefit disbled jockeys.
He was an avid runner, and always had health foremost on his mind, Hamill said.
“‘Good health’ were always his departing words,” she said.
